Art of Supply

On Wednesday, June 10th, Amazon announced that they will now offer full LTL services to anyone. 
Before that, LTL was available "inbound only," meaning from Amazon sellers to Amazon facilities to Amazon customers. In their press outreach, the company has touted their 80,000 trailers and 24,000 intermodal containers, as well as improved load visibility and fleet security measures.
The response to this announcement was split. Traditional freight carriers like FedEx Freight, Old Dominion, and XPO lost market value, but some analysts have a different take. They are not so sure we should have the reaction we've been conditioned to have when Amazon moves into a new market. At least not yet.
In this episode of the Art of Supply podcast, Kelly Barner covers three big questions looming over this story:
- Is Amazon LTL truly functioning as an asset-backed carrier, or are they more of a broker behind a front of assets?
- What kinds of shippers will the Amazon LTL service appeal to?
- Do Amazon's integrated abilities position them to completely upend how freight works?
We can't promise you will get the answer to those questions in this episode, but listeners should walk away with a better understanding of why they matter.
 
Links:
Kelly Barner on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-barner-6884443/ 
Art of Supply LinkedIn newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/art-of-supply-6895142546301960193 
Art of Supply on AOP: http://www.artofsupply.com 
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"Demand planning is the thing which everybody seems to focus on, because it's kind of theoretical. You come up with a forecast and it doesn't really influence anything. It's when you look at the supply side, that's when it becomes real."
Most supply chains are supported by investments in demand planning tools, sales and operations planning systems, and MRPs… so why is the supply plan being 'fixed' by a person with a spreadsheet and a hunch?
Mark Robinson is the CEO of Orchestr8, an enterprise supply chain planning platform. He has spent more than two decades helping global organizations including Shell, BT, 3M, and Boots improve their supply chain planning performance. 
He has always maintained a particular interest in the gap between supply planning theory and the realities of execution - one that AI may just be ready to help bridge.
In this episode of the Art of Supply podcast, Kelly Barner and Mark discuss why:
-Bigger budgets don't buy better outcomes
-Supply planning can't be waved away as a background task
-A love of 'firefighting' may be half the problem with supply planning
 
Links:
Mark Robinson on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-robinson-3a470211/ 
Kelly Barner on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-barner-6884443/ 
Art of Supply LinkedIn newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/art-of-supply-6895142546301960193 
Art of Supply on AOP: http://www.artofsupply.com 
Subscribe to the Art of Procurement Newsletter: https://resources.artofprocurement.com/art-of-procurement-podcast-subscribe

Can a mega merger of peers increase competition in their market?
Case in point: the proposed rail merger between Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern. Both are Class I railroads, among the largest by revenue in North America as defined by the Surface Transportation Board.
According to a 2001 Surface Transportation Board rule, their merger must enhance competition - but that's not usually how mergers are designed to work, especially among giants. And this is the first rail merger that has to meet that requirement.
After some back-and-forth, the Surface Transportation Board "conditionally" accepted the merger application on May 28th, but they are still looking for more information. No review activities will be conducted until that information is provided.
In other words: the Surface Transportation Board has accepted the Union Pacific - Norfolk Southern filing, but they have not accepted the information provided in that filing. We'll have to wait to find out if the application is approved based on its merits.
In this episode of the Art of Supply podcast, Kelly Barner covers the proposed merger from multiple angles:
- The expectations for increased rail competition and public benefit
- How the railways propose to give their non-transcontinental competitors a fighting chance
- Whether the Surface Transportation Board and a coalition of opponents think competition is likely
Links:
One Railroad to Rule Them All? Inside the Union Pacific–Norfolk Southern Merger: https://artofprocurement.com/blog/supply-one-railroad-to-rule-them-all-inside-the-union-pacific-norfolk-southern-merger 
Kelly Barner on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-barner-6884443/ 
Art of Supply LinkedIn newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/art-of-supply-6895142546301960193 
Art of Supply on AOP: http://www.artofsupply.com 
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On Monday, June 1st, FedEx Freight CEO John Smith rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange to celebrate the fact that the company is now operating (and trading) independently.
This story dates back to the summer of 2024, when the idea of separating out FedEx's LTL operating unit was just a very believable rumor. Now they are the largest LTL provider in North America, and what one outlet described as a $9 Billion startup, with 40,000 employees.
And yet, for all of the company-led fanfare, the media coverage was… uninspired? With one notable exception that is… 
In this episode of the Art of Supply podcast, Kelly Barner covers what we know about FedEx Freight's immediate plans for their corporate freedom:
- What they plan to focus on as a company, both from a growth standpoint and operationally
- Where the company stands on the question of emissions reduction, regulatory changes, and driverless fleets
- How soon we might have some idea of how successful they will be
 
Links:
Will FedEx Freight hit the open road? (AOS, December 2024): https://artofprocurement.com/blog/supply-will-fedex-freight-hit-the-open-road 
Kelly Barner on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-barner-6884443/ 
Art of Supply LinkedIn newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/art-of-supply-6895142546301960193 
Art of Supply on AOP: http://www.artofsupply.com 
Subscribe to the Art of Procurement Newsletter: https://resources.artofprocurement.com/art-of-procurement-podcast-subscribe

Endless Shrimp is BACK at Red Lobster… a headline few people in the business world would have predicted. 
The promotion played an over-hyped role in the company's 2024 bankruptcy filing, mostly because it was easier to explain than a bad real estate leaseback deal led by investors at the time – the actual cause of Red Lobster's financial trouble.
Their new CEO, Damola Adamolekun, is best known for leading the turnaround at P.F. Chang's and was handpicked by Fortress Investment Group, the investors that bought Red Lobster out of bankruptcy.
In November 2024, Adamolekun told Today he had ended the Endless Shrimp promotion "Because I know how to do math." And yet… six weeks before the end of the company's fiscal year… it looks like their best hope.
In this episode of the Art of Supply podcast, Kelly Barner looks back at Red Lobster:
- How much progress the company has made since their bankruptcy
- The cost pressures, both internal and external, they are struggling to overcome
- And the impact a media-savvy CEO has been able to have on restaurant traffic
 
Links:
Ultimate Endless Real Estate Costs at Red Lobster https://artofprocurement.com/blog/supply-ultimate-endless-real-estate-costs-at-red-lobster
Kelly Barner on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-barner-6884443/ 
Art of Supply LinkedIn newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/art-of-supply-6895142546301960193 
Art of Supply on AOP: http://www.artofsupply.com 
Subscribe to the Art of Procurement Newsletter: https://resources.artofprocurement.com/art-of-procurement-podcast-subscribe